The Creative Process: How perfumers created Calvin Klein’s new scent Encounter

Calvin Klein’s new fragrance for men, Encounter, was launched this fall. Here’s how the perfumers, Pierre Negrin and Honorine Blanc created the signature scent:

1. “Everything that triggers emotion is a source of inspiration.”

At a meeting with the marketing team at Calvin Klein, the perfumers Pierre Negrin and Honorine Blanc were presented a video. This short film reflected the concept of the new fragrance. “You had this house by the ocean with water. Very Calvin Klein, very sleek, very modern and intense,” Negrin says. “During the creative process, we had to keep in mind the Calvin Klein world. The code of the brand. We went back to Obsession and Eternity which were break-throughs at the time for the men’s market. We wanted to achieve the same effect and deliver a very masculine fragrance.”

2.“Cognac. It’s rich. It’s powerful. It makes a statement.”

How do you translate modern, sleek and intense masculinity into a smell? “We had the idea of the cognac because cognac is elegant. It defines masculinity,” Blanc says. “Cognac is very intense but very fresh at the same time. It’s something that you drink slowly. You take your time to appreciate it. It’s precious. It’s a liquor that is alive. You warm your cognac before you drink it — it’s very sensual.”

3. “It’s like a recipe.”

Negrin and Blanc spent six months smelling different recipes every day. They nosed thousands of samples. “We work at a computer. We have a formula with measures and then you play with it. It’s like a recipe,” Blanc says. “The cognac is your heartbeat, the heart of the fragrance. Then you enhance every facet of it by adding different elements. We added agarwood. It’s smoky and intense. Then you say, you want more creaminess so you add more musk. Then you say, I want more smoothness so you add jasmine.”

Lab technicians created the samples and brought them for Negric and Blanc to smell. “It’s like painting. You’re trying to find which colour to add to another to make it more beautiful or darker,” Blanc says. “Every time you add something to an equilibrium, to something that is well rounded, it disturbs the whole thing.”

4. “It was a roller coaster.”

Finding the perfect scent takes time and discussion. “We had ups and downs. It’s trial and error. She had a tendency to push fruity, floral notes in the fragrance. I said, ‘I don’t think it’s suitable for this fragrance.’ She was fighting me over that,” Negrin says. After several trials, Blanc conceded to Negrin on that point. Then they disagreed when Negin pushed for more leathery notes in the fragrance. “I don’t believe in arrogance in elegance. The leather was making the agarwood too dark,” Blanc says. Negrin adds: “It was not the best combination. So we dropped it.”

5. “You just know it’s right…It’s instinctual.”

“The last stage was trying to smooth out the edges,” Negrin says. “Once we had the pieces together: the cardamom, the cognac, the agarwood, with pepper, musk and jasmine, we knew what the shape and form was going to be — but you want to make sure that nothing sticks out.” But how do you know when a fragrance is ready? “You just know it’s right. I can’t explain it. It’s instinctual,” Blanc says. “When you listen to a melody, you know that a note is sticking out and shouldn’t be there.”